


Struck by Cupid's Dart

by TaoAndThen



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Choose Your Own Ending, F/M, Multi, Multiple Pairings, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-09
Updated: 2014-02-09
Packaged: 2018-01-11 18:42:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1176557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TaoAndThen/pseuds/TaoAndThen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You can't pick.  Your roommate comes up with a brilliant idea- throw a dart and see where it lands.</p><p>Multiple possible pairings using choose your own ending style- Reader/Arthur, Reader/Vlad, Reader/Matthew, Reader/Alfred, or Reader/Gilbert.  Presence and relevance of other characters is determined by which path the reader picks.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Struck by Cupid's Dart

**Author's Note:**

> I know I've been neglecting A Tree to Nurture (well, anything Roots and Wings related) and Held Together by a Fraying Rope. They're on hiatus until no later than the 18th. Sore Loser received a lot of positive feedback on deviantArt so I'm going to try my hand at a few more of those. I have a poll going to see which fandoms readers would like to see next, open until midnight on the 14th (Central Standard Time, -6). If you guys could participate in that I'd really appreciate it! Here's a list of everything I'm working on, have on hiatus, and will be upcoming. It includes a link to the poll. Thanks guys! http://taoandthen.deviantart.com/journal/To-Do-List-432232742

Your roommate of four years and best friend sat on the edge of her bed and watched with bated breath as you covered your eyes with one hand and raised the other, aiming at the world map you had posted on your wall.  When you couldn’t decide on a topic for any of your history classes this was generally how you went about solving the problem, but this time it wasn’t a matter of academics.

“Eliza, you’re breathing loudly and it’s creeping me out,” you muttered.

“I’m sorry _______, I’m just excited!” she replied holding back a squeal.  It was rather uncharacteristic of Elizabeta Héderváry to exhibit such schoolgirl-like behavior but she could no longer sit on the sidelines and watch the potential for any semblance of you having a love life crumble to dust.

“I gathered that earlier…”

You were a very social person, involved in a variety of groups and activities on your campus and held a wide range of interests.  As such it was only natural that you would have a rather large and eclectic circle of friends.  Having grown up with three older sisters, all of whom you couldn’t stand, you had an easier time befriending males for as long as you could remember.  You never thought this to be problematic as a youth, but college was college and hormones were hormones.  They were easy to ignore in high school as you spent all your time focusing on your studies to get into the prestigious Himaruya Education and Training in the Arts and Letters International Academy (Hetalia for short), located right in the heart of the very cosmopolitan New York City.  It didn’t take very long for you to start making friends and it took even less time for a handful of your friends to develop feelings for you that were beyond platonic.

The problem?  As soon as you began to reciprocate said feelings you went into a panic, as you couldn’t pick.  You saw the merits and flaws in each of them, making it hard to compare the lot.  Having been so focused on academics in middle and high school you never had a serious relationship before so you didn’t have a clue as to what your own needs and preferences were.  All you knew was that you were attracted to men and now you had a handful of them clamoring for your attention all at once.  It didn’t help that Elizabeta, despite her encouragement had some complaint about each of them.  She wanted you to have a boyfriend and had spent time scoping out the campus for what she believed to be a more appropriate fit for you.  In the end she conceded and tried her best to respect your choices, or rather the fact that you were an autonomous being with the capacity to make your own choices.  Respecting your particular choices was another story which had yet to be penned.

You wanted a boyfriend after having been single for so long but had no idea how to go about finding one.  Now you were burdened with the daunting and overwhelming task of picking from a group of suitors; considering your lack of experience it felt more like a chore than an opportunity.  So you did what anyone in your position would do and resorted to Facebook, sending a mass message to all of them.

_OK boys, since I’m clueless when it comes to romance Eliza recently pointed out to me that you all have been flirting with me recently.  And I’m flattered, really, I am.  But there are too many of you for me to just pick and you’re all great guys so, like it or not, I’ll have to date all of you until I can decide.  I know this is going to get messy, especially with family members involved and some of you being related to my good friends…So Eliza helped me come up with some ground rules.  
_

_1.) I’m going to try and spend an equal amount of time with all of you, so **I** schedule the dates instead having all of you bugging me to do fifty million different things every Friday night._

_2.) Sabotage it for someone else and you’re out._ (You knew this was bound to happen anyway but still wanted to put forth some sort of effort to divert it)

_3.) Don’t be surprised if you find Eliza spying on you when you aren’t in my company.  She already bought binoculars.  I wish I was joking._

_4.) Treat it like a competition and me like a prize to be won and you’re out.  
_

_It’s probably been made pretty clear by now that Eliza actually came up with all of those and is making me send them to you.  She also wants me to warn you that she’s had a strong affinity for bludgeoning people since she was a kid so any rule breakers (or worse) will ‘have their face become swiftly acquainted with a frying pan’ to use her words.  Considering how often she cooks she has a handful of them.  And I’m pretty sure she means it so for the sake of my sanity and your lovely faces please behave.  
_

_Sincerely,_

_________  
_

Your roommate was not the only one present which greatly amplified the pressure and anxiety you were feeling.  You had been best friends with Tino Väinämöinen since childhood, both having grown up in Delaware and attending school together from primary up.  The two of you had both worked hard to attend the same university. He was sitting in the far corner of your bed cuddling with one of your throw pillows.  The sound of his teeth chattering was both incredibly annoying and distracting but you could never bring yourself to snap at such a sweet guy, especially with his boyfriend in the room as well.  You and Berwald Oxenstierna got along very well but it was no secret that he was quite overprotective of Tino and came off as intimidating, even to those who knew him best.  On top of that Elizabeta’s boyfriend Roderick Edelstein was present but not out of his own volition.  As a music major he wanted to spend the evening practicing for his recital on Saturday but he knew better than to argue with her when it came to situations she deemed crucial.

Much to your chagrin Elizabeta had taken the liberty of coloring over every relevant country on your map- England, Germany, the United States, Romania, and Canada.  You knew she had the best of intentions but weren’t very thrilled by the fact that she had more or less desecrated your property, especially one that you used for scholastic purposes.

“_______, I swear if you don’t throw that dart I’m going to do it for you!” she threatened sharply, her Hungarian accent taking over.  Her accent magnified in direct proportion to growth in impatience and irritability.  Roderick quietly scolded her to calm down and his words were met with a glare.  Though she had yet to vocalize it a fraction of her excitement was bred from agitation that you were attracted to her ex-boyfriend from freshman year.  She wasn’t angry that you had considered dating _her_ ex, but rather you were considering dating her _ex_.  She broke up with him with good reason and began to question your sanity after you made mention of your crush on him despite the ‘horror stories’ she had shared with you about their brief relationship.  On top of that he and his younger brother were Roderick’s cousins and he too began to fear for your mental well-being.

The door suddenly burst open and you almost threw the dart in its general direction out of some bizarre reflex.  A panting Feliciano Vargas, Elizabeta’s young friend (though she treated him more like an adorable little baby, which sometimes made Roderick jealous) closed the door and leaned against it as he tried to catch his breath.  She met him at freshman orientation that year, which she led since the year prior when she was a junior.  Though it was held only a week before the fall semester began she adored him from the start and smothered him as if he were her own child.  He smiled weakly.  “Good, you haven’t-a picked-a yet.  I was afraid-a I might-a miss it.”

“Wonderful, a bigger audience,” you grumbled.

“I told him he could come,” Elizabeta replied as he excitedly hopped on the bed next to her and she patted him on the head.  Roderick rolled his eyes and cursed under his breath in the Austrian German dialect.  She tried not to chuckle at his irrational jealousy which she found quite cute, something she always made mention of to alleviate his irritability.  It wasn’t the most flattering compliment but Elizabeta wasn’t a flatterer, she was brutally honest.

You closed your eyes again and took aim.  Tino held his breath and squeezed the pillow tightly.  Were it a living being he probably would have suffocated or choked it by now.  Elizabeta began praying in her head that the dart wouldn’t land on Germany.  Roderick did the same as he wouldn’t even wish such a fate upon his worst enemies.  As far as he was concerned the only good that came from his cousin’s existence was meeting Elizabeta.  Feliciano buried his face in his hands and silently awaited the outcome, treating it like a life or death situation.  Berwald was the only neutral party.

Being so brutally honest Elizabeta not only voiced her concern, she made sure to list the most undesirable traits in each man.  Arthur Kirkland was abrasive, stubborn, and confrontational.  Being rather stubborn yourself she anticipated, at best, a love-hate relationship.  Alfred Jones was loud and obnoxious.  You intuited that he would be in mortal danger should you dare to bring him over to your dorm room while she was present.  Matthew Williams was too shy and passive, so much so that few noticed his presence.  Vlad Popescu was a loner, and rumored to be a vampire.  Elizabeta wasn’t superstitious by any means but she was protective and wouldn’t rule out the possibility for your sake.  And Gilbert Beilschmidt was…Gilbert Beilschmidt.  But you found Arthur to be intelligent and charming.  Alfred an adorable dork.  Matthew was gentle, affectionate, and sweet.  Vlad intriguing and you suspected he had a playful side to him.  And Gilbert was…Gilbert.  You and Elizabeta had radically different definitions of what that meant.

You gulped and threw the dart.  It whistled through the air and pierced the map.  You parted your fingers to see where it had landed.  “Well,” you began with a slow nod, putting your hands on your hips, “this is going to be interesting.”

“Your first date,” your roommate began.  “I’m so proud I may shed a tear.  Except that it’s with him!” she shrieked and pointed at the map.  “Honestly ______, how could you like him?  _Him_?”

“Eliza, you’d be complaining no matter where it landed.”

She huffed.  “I suppose you’re right.  At least it’s an excuse to go shopping.  You’ll need something to wear.”

“That depends on where we go, doesn’t it?  I mean…no one said it had to be a fancy restaurant or anything like that.”

“Why-a not?” Feliciano asked legitimately confused.  “Why-a would you a-pass up a chance to a-go to Olive Garden?”

“Because I’m not a spaghetti fiend.”

“Blasphemy!”


End file.
